If memory serves (a dicey proposition these days) it was around Labor Day 1978, barely two months after starting my first newspaper job, and I had returned to the state capital to see some of the friends I had made over the previous four years while residing there as a college student.
One of them was heading out to a motorcycle rally and invited me to come along. As I would be leaving from there to head home, I drove separately, and he tossed me a cassette of a new album he had just obtained, “You Can Tune a Piano but You Can’t Tune a Fish” by REO Speedwagon. Soon enough came the piano intro to one of their biggest hits, “Roll with the Changes.”
Almost immediately I was enthralled and soon adopted it as one of my rock anthems.
Just recently I was watching a show that has a great sound track, as many of the tunes are also of that era and genre. They are also quite appropriate for the scenes.
When I heard that familiar intro, I immediately cranked the volume as high as it would go.
Its message has served me well for almost 48 years in the newspaper business (I can claim around a half-century if you add senior year on the high school newspaper staff, a year in junior high throwing the hometown paper six days a week and the several editions as co-publisher of the Coin and Stamp News in 5th grade).
Now it’s time to roll with one more change, shedding those deadlines and responsibilities for what I hope (and plan) will be more sleep, more golf, less stress and a little fun thrown in.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as the co-owner of this community’s newspaper for almost seven and a half years and in a dozen or more communities since that fateful June day in 1978.
By my loose arithmetic, that’s something like 3,716 editions of newspapers based in 14 Texas communities.
I could regale you with stories for days, but it has been said that every journalist has a book in them, and that’s where it should stay, so I will refrain.
We leave the paper in the more-than-capable hands of new owner-publisher James Taylor and manager Carley Tucker.
James has been shepherding community papers for more than 20 years and has been gearing up for this day for the last several months, helping out with ad sales, photography and more. If you’ve had the chance to meet him, you know that he is friendly, engaging and knowledgable.
Carley is well-known and well-respected around these parts and has plenty of exposure to newspapering in Wood County, as the daughter of the former editor (Larry) and has been a frequent contributor in recent years. She’s also well-versed in several key areas that will be part of her news coverage beat.
I have no doubt they will be building on what we did and making it much better – especially since they have made a few less laps around the orb, which translates into more energy.
“So if you’re tired of the same old story, oh, turn some pages…keep on rolling.”